Ben Spies helped bring thousands of new fans to World Superbike.
World Superbike needs an American rider – that is if it wants to keep the level of popularity it reached this season.
World Superbike saw a spike in popularity this year thanks in part to the excellent championship battle between Ben Spies and Nori Haga, but also in a very large measure due to the popularity of Spies. The three-time AMA Superbike Champion brought fans to World Superbike in droves, just as Infront Motor Sports, promoter of the series, suspected he would. Last year when Spies was being shopped around for a MotoGP ride, it was Infront’s Paolo Flammini who openly courted Spies. Some insiders say that World Superbike even helped supplement Yamaha’s offer to make sure Spies would land in its series.
The investment paid off richly. If you look at web traffic ranking sites such as Alexa or Google Trends you can clearly see that World Superbike’s website traffic spiked this year. Worldwide news reference volume for World Superbike exploded to unprecedented levels. A representative of Crash.net told me that posts on Spies produced some of the highest traffic and provoked some of the largest discussion numbers they’ve ever seen on their site.
| world superbike |
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1.00 |
| ama superbike |
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0.52 |
Google Trends of World Superbike (blue) versus AMA Superbike (red). Note the increasing gap in search volume and how World Superbike's News Volume exploded this season, while AMA Superbike's plummeted.
The reasons are easy to understand. The sheer number of American racing fans helped bump these numbers to record highs. In addition America’s domestic Superbike series is in the midst of a transition period and interest in that championship is at an all-time low. Need proof? Go to Google Trends and type in AMA Superbike. Search volume for “AMA Superbike” is half in 2009 what it was just five years ago. News reference volume has also plummeted from the previous four years.
Josh Hayes seems the most obvious choice of American rider who would have a chance to do well in World Superbike. (Larry Lawrence photo)
The problem World Superbike has in replacing Spies is that there is no one on the domestic front that has Spies’ talent level. The rides turned in by John Hopkins, Jake Zemke, Blake Young and even Jamie Hacking did nothing to excite the team managers over there. Perhaps the best bet for an American rider to do well in the series would be Josh Hayes, but let’s face it, Spies had a once in a generation season in World Superbike and it would be foolhardy to expect any other American rider to be able to duplicate that success.
Even though there’s no clear-cut choice in an American rider to fill Spies’ boots in World Superbike next season, it is obvious that if World Superbike hopes to maintain the momentum and the American fan base it built in 2009, an American rider or riders will have to be part of that equation.
Rider Files 